Asteroid 2 Pallas is visible in the late evening and overnight into the early morning. Around local midnight, you’ll find this main-belt world some 16° high in the eastern sky, a few degrees ...

China’s Tianwen-2 mission has launched to explore an asteroid that may be a piece of the moon, as well as an active asteroid that acts like a comet.

This in-space photo was released on June 7, 2025. (Image credit: CNSA) China has released a first picture of its Tianwen 2 mission as the spacecraft heads for a near-Earth asteroid.

China Wednesday launched its Tianwen-2 space mission to collect asteroid samples and conduct a main-belt comet study. A LongMarch 3B rocket lifted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

Tianwen 2 is China's first-ever mission to an asteroid or a comet, and just its second planetary exploration effort overall. The first, Tianwen 1, sent an orbiter and a rover to Mars in 2020.